Recycled Polyester Fabric

Making recycled polyester fabric involves several key steps:

1. Collecting the plastic waste: Post-consumer plastic bottles account for approximately 99% of recycled polyester fabric feedstock and are collected through recycling programs and waste management systems. While discarded polyester fabrics and pre-consumer textile waste can also serve as raw material sources, they are far less utilized than bottles.
2. Cleaning the plastic waste: The collected plastic waste is thoroughly cleaned to remove impurities such as adhesives, dirt, labels, and residual liquids, ensuring they are suitable for processing into new polyester fibers.
3. Mechanical or chemical recycling:
• Mechanical recycling: Most recycled polyester fabric is produced through mechanical recycling. This process involves shredding the plastic into flakes, melting it, and extruding it to form new polyester fibers.
• Chemical recycling: This process breaks down plastic waste into monomers through depolymerization. The monomers are then purified and repolymerized into new fibers. Chemical recycling of polyester is less common than mechanical due to high production costs.
4. Spinning the fibers into yarn: Once the new polyester fibers have been created, they are spun into yarn using industrial spinning machines. These yarns can be used alone or blended with other fibers to enhance properties like strength, softness, or elasticity.
5. Creating and finishing the fabric: Finally, the yarn is woven or knitted into fabric using industrial looms or knitting machines. Additional finishing processes such as dyeing, printing, or coating may be applied to improve appearance and performance before the fabric is made into clothing or home textiles and sold to consumers.

Recycled polyester clothing may raise safety and toxicity concerns due to potential contaminants like antimony, which is toxic at high concentrations. Studies found that polyester clothes release antimony into sweat and contain concentrations of 141 mg/kg, exceeding safety limits. 

However, OEKO-TEX 100, a certification standard for harmful substances testing for textiles, limits antimony to 30 mg/kg, and permits clothes made from plastic bottles to be classified as “Class I: Products for babies”, suggesting that recycled polyester textiles can meet high safety standards. Bluesign, another certifier with some of the strictest chemical usage criteria for textiles, also limits the antimony permitted in polyester fibers and products. Therefore, to ensure safety, we recommend purchasing only certified products.

These are some of the disadvantages of recycled polyester:

1. Fails to tackle polyester textile waste: Nearly all recycled polyester is produced from plastic bottles, leaving the polyester waste from the fashion industry unaddressed. Conventional polyester has an annual production volume of 71 million tonnes, most of which ends up in landfills or is incinerated. To close the loop, we need to move away from bottles and towards textile-to-textile chemical recycling.
2. Chemical recycling of polyester is costly: Chemical recycling of polyester faces obstacles such as high energy consumption, which limits its scalability and adoption. The price premium for chemically recycled polyester is two to three times that of conventional polyester.
3. Competes with other industries for plastic bottles: Diverting plastic bottles for textiles competes with the closed-loop recycling systems within the food industry. According to the EU Green Claims Directive 2023/0085, this may mislead consumers regarding any environmental benefits of recycled polyester. 
4. Microplastic pollution remains an issue: Recycled polyester sheds microplastics during washing, just like conventional polyester. Up to 35% of ocean microplastics originate from synthetic textiles and half a million tonnes of microplastics from synthetic clothing enter the oceans annually.
5. Mechanical recycling results in reduced fiber quality: Mechanical recycling, the dominant method for producing recycled polyester, results in fibers of reduced strength and durability, impacting the performance and lifespan of finished products sold to consumers.

These are some of the advantages of recycled polyester:

1. Reduces carbon emissions: By decreasing the need for virgin petroleum-based raw materials, recycled polyester can reduce carbon emissions by up to 85% compared to conventional polyester.
2. Mitigates water pollution risks: Recycled polyester significantly reduces water-related risks compared to virgin polyester. This is because it relies on recycled feedstock, avoiding the high water scarcity and pollution risks associated with oil and gas extraction used in conventional polyester production.
3. Maximizes the value of waste streams: Recycled polyester maximizes waste stream utilization by converting discarded materials into valuable textiles. This encourages waste sorting, monitoring, and incentivized recovery, unlike conventional polyester, which does not inherently track or utilize waste streams.
4. Reduces risks of eutrophication: Recycled polyester significantly reduces the impact of eutrophication (nutrient pollution causing algal blooms) as it avoids the high levels of chemical runoff typically associated with virgin polyester manufacturing.
5. Avoids pollution from oil and gas extraction: Although recycled polyester is oil-based, it reduces the need for further oil and gas extraction and avoids producing toxic gray water, thus addressing significant environmental concerns of conventional polyester production.

Recycled polyester is a synthetic fiber that resists shrinking and wrinkling, offers moderate breathability, and features low stretch. It can be machine washed, tumble dried, and ironed at low to medium heat, making it easy to care for. While it provides limited insulation, it remains durable and versatile for everyday wear. However, it is a synthetic, petroleum-based fiber, and not biodegradable.

Recycled polyester certification ensures transparency and sustainability in production. Similar to other recycled fabrics like recycled cotton, the two key standards to look for are the Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) and the Global Recycled Standard (GRS). As polyester is plastic-based, OEKO-TEX 100 is another important standard, ensuring the finished product is safe for health.

Here’s how the three compare:

Recycled Claim Standard (RCS)

The RCS focuses on verifying the recycled content in a finished recycled polyester product through chain of custody certification. It tracks recycled material throughout the supply chain, ensuring the recycled claims are accurate, but it does not address any additional environmental or social impacts during fabric production. This makes it a simpler option for ensuring the recycled origin of polyester but less comprehensive in addressing broader sustainability concerns.

Global Recycled Standard (GRS)

The GRS goes a step further than recycled content claim verification. It adds strict criteria for environmental and social responsibility, mandating waste and chemical management, emission monitoring, and adherence to labor standards such as fair wages, safe workplaces, and prohibitions on child and forced labor. The GRS is comprehensive and ensures that recycled polyester contributes not only to a circular economy but also to a more sustainable and ethical supply chain.

OEKO-TEX Standard 100

OEKO-TEX 100 ensures that the finished recycled polyester product is tested for harmful substances. It applies stricter testing frequencies to recycled materials and includes special provisions for fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles. It addresses safety and chemical compliance for consumer protection but does not monitor broader environmental or social impacts during production, meaning that it’s not a direct substitute for standards like the GRS.